The Testament of Hope
by brittany.heye
Summary: Bughead story Jughead had a rough childhood, there was little happy memories left by the time Jason Blossom was murdered. There was little hope of his life ever getting back on track. Or was there? A certain girl with emerald green eyes and a heart of gold may show Jughead the testament of hope, and what hope can bore.
1. Prologue: The End of An Era

As Forsythe Pendleton Jones III sprayed the last of his tag sign onto the side of the Twilight Drive-In in Riverdale, he released a world weary sigh. You see, Forsythe, though no one called him that except his mother, was losing yet another piece of himself on this day, and he didn't know that it was just one of many changes coming his way.

Jughead Jones, as he preferred to be called, was leaving the place that had given him shelter for the last six months. His father had spiraled, his mother gave him years to fix it and when he didn't, when she hit her last straw, she took his sister and fled, leaving Jughead with two options; stay with an alcoholic father, or flee himself. He chose the latter, though choosing not to go too far because of this pesky thing called hope.

He had hope that his father would fix things, bring his mother and Jellybean home, and make his family whole again, even if he had spent the last six months living in his place of employment, not that anyone knew that. He was only fifteen, and already he was worried about how to pay for food, and now, where he was going to live. Let's rewind shall we, and start from the beginning.


	2. Ch 1: The Beginnings of Jughead Jones

At first, life was great for one young boy from the Southside of Riverdale. He had a happy family, an adorable (and sometimes annoying) little sister, and a mother who was happy. He had two best friends: Betty Cooper and Archie Andrews.

Jughead had met one Archie Andrews because his father worked with Mr. Andrews and the boys began their friendship in a haze of construction offices and sites as their playgrounds, and it only continued when they began school at Riverdale Elementary. The two were inseparable, although they provided a laughable contrast, as they would continue to emanate for the rest of their lives. Jughead, dark-haired and bright blue eyes with a huge imagination, and Archie. Gangly, bright red hair and a fair complexion, who was more interested in knights and heroes than the story behind the men themselves. Their parents laughed at the boys, so different, yet the two were thicker than thieves, and their friendship carried them through some of the hardest times of both the young men's lives. The Andrew's family moved into a bigger house on the nicer side of the tracks the year before they began school, and there Archie Andrew's met the girl who would turn them from an iconic duo into the three musketeers.

Betty Cooper, the girl next door. The blonde haired, green eyed beauty of the next generation. She befriended Archie the minuet they realized their bedrooms faced each other and they became fast friends. For a year, Jug and Archie would play together in the backyard, in perfect view of the girl, but she was not allowed to join, her mother, deeming their company not up to the standard she wanted for her daughter. But on the first day of school, Archie walked right up to the quiet girl and held out a hand, "Come and play with me and Juggie." That was that, the three musketeers were born, and Alice Cooper could do nothing to stop it.

For as long as Jughead could remember it had been the three of them against everyone else, sure they were also friends with the Sheriffs son, Kevin, but it wasn't the same. He wasn't a part of their three musketeers. They did everything together, and were inseparable, until they weren't.

Suddenly at ten, Jughead was gaining responsibility of his sister when his parents worked. He couldn't spend as much time with his friends, and suddenly he was sharing Archie with his other best friend more and more, and between Betty and sports and life, their friendship dynamic changed. Jughead still played at school, but he was at the Andrew's less and less, especially after his eleventh birthday, when his parents began to fight openly instead of hushed whispers, and things got tense at home. And after Jughead spent a summer in Juvie because he was caught playing with matches in the grass and his accidental fire tarnished his record, and juvie tarnished him. He was changed upon his return, and though his friends welcomed him back with open arms, he felt different, and so did they.

It was obvious to Jug that Betty was crushing on Archie, and their summer as a duo cemented that for her, and Jug found himself competing for time. Not that Betty tuned him out, she was too sweet for that, but her mom got stricter and stricter as Betty's sister rebelled, so Archie was the one she saw the most. Fast-forward to right before his twelfth birthday. His father would spiral down the path of darkness and his life would begin to crumble.

His father came home, days before his birthday, in the middle of the day, and in a rage. F.P. Jones would never hit his kids, but that didn't mean that his rage didn't scare Jellybean or Jughead for that matter. His mother got him to sit and breathe and then explain what happened. One simple defeated sentence, "Fred fired me Gladys." And the cracks in his family began to grow. The fighting got worse, his dad couldn't find a job, and he turned to the bottle, and later the Serpents.

The final blow came when, mere days before the school year ended, Gladys Jones left. And took Jellybean with her. His mother left him, left his father, and ran. He didn't tell a soul, and after his dad disappeared for two days on a bender, he left his father. Striking out on his own at the age of fifteen. He made himself even more at home at his home away from home, the Drive-In. His friends left him that summer as well. Betty for an internship she couldn't turn down. Archie was right there in Riverdale, but he left their friendship.

The cracks in that relationship started the same time that his dad was fired, not purposefully, but they appeared. He wasn't allowed to go to Archie's, according to his dad, so they only really saw each other at school or at Pop's, and as they grew up Archie found sports and girls. But he didn't see Betty. And he began to neglect Jughead. After a rough Freshman year for the pair they agreed on a summer road trip to fix their issues. But Archie never showed. He blew him off, and a few weeks ago he had found out why. It was once again for a girl. And while they were okay now, it wasn't the same. Nothing was the same, and once again, his world was changing. He was once again witnessing his home being ripped from him, whether by alcohol or by a greedy mayor, it didn't matter, his life was falling apart.

As he stood back to admire his work, he heard the distant rumble of the bikes and knew that it was time to move on. He wasn't stupid, he heard the footfalls behind him, knew who would be standing there.

Sure enough there was FP Jones, watching his son tag a building that he helped along towards destruction, not that Jughead knew that yet.

"Tear that booth down too. Raze the whole place. Send it to the junkyard. Us with it." Was his greeting.

"Yeah, maybe they'll save it, all the pieces. Store it in the town hall attic. Rebuild it in a hundred years and wonder who the hell we were." I couldn't help but smile. He was, after all still my father, he knew what this place meant to me, meant to our family. He chuckled lightly at the end of my quip before my face fell and his mirrored it, and he asked the question I did not yet have an answer to.

"So where are you going to live now?" I shook my head, looking away from the man standing before me. My reply had more of a bite than the first, "I will figure it out dad, I always do."

And without so much as a last glance at the place I had called home for the last six months, and the man that was singlehandedly destroying our family, I walked away. Settling the remains of my life in the backpack they were held in, onto my back, I walked away. Away from the comfort of a home that had been near and dear to me for most of my life, and the man that I refused to enable by staying to watch as he self-destructed.

As he walked away from the last happy memories of his childhood, he scoured his brain for a place to go. Where could he stay that he wouldn't be found out and that he wouldn't have to catch a bus to school from? He pondered this as he walked, and then after about fifteen minutes, it hit him. There was a loose window in the boys' locker room at school. He could climb in and stay in one of the lesser used closets in the east wing, and use the locker room to shower and he had some savings left, he could eat at Pop's where he got free food anyway because Pop loved him. It wasn't ideal, it was really risky, anyone could catch him, and it would be another arrest because it would be trespassing, but he had done the same at the drive-in for six months without begin noticed and caught, so he was confident enough that he could pull this off.

With that settled he allowed his thoughts to wander. They wandered exactly where they always wandered these days; to Jason Blossom and his death. It was, after all the source of his inspiration. Riding shotgun to those thoughts was something else entirely. While everything with Jason and his murder was shrouded in mystery, this side of his thoughts was full of sunshine and bright green eyes. Of hope, that pesky feeling overshadowing everything, even thoughts of death and the growing darkness in his little hometown.


End file.
